M. SAGE
Wants A Diamond Pivot Bright LP
available for digital purchase here; check the distro page for remaining LPs
mastered by Sean McCann
limited to 300 LPs
comes with a two-sided insert
featuring collaborations with:
claire rousay
Francesco Covarino
Ned Milligan
Patrick Shiroishi
Chihei Hatakeyama
Joseph Edward Yonker
Zander Raymond
Chris Jusell
Lee Noble
Gianni Andreatta
Matt Wenzel
Theodore Cale Schafer
Hakobune
Beth McDonald
Josh Mason
Peter Speer
With The Wind of Things and the heralded completion of the Fuubutsushi album cycle all arriving this year, Matt Sage has generously offered further proof of his talents as an empathetic musician and composer. As curator of Cached Media, those same qualities emerge in his artistic vision and goodwill, which are necessarily intertwined. Yet even in the sizable company of such achievements, Wants A Diamond Pivot Bright, his new LP, immediately stands out, thanks to its unique framework.
In short, Sage asked sixteen other artists to spend some time with Wallace Stevens' poetry--"his engagement with sound as a medium and also a carrier of meaning is remarkable," Sage writes in his liner notes--and they each then sent him a track named after or inspired by a poem or line of Stevens's that especially resonated. Bringing closure to this ekphrastic equation, Sage added his own elements, primarily on guitar and piano. There is meaning in Sage's playful but committed invitation to participate--especially so during a time of imposed isolation, sure, but a meaningful gesture at any time--an act of faith that has shaped his discographies as an artist and label head.
Given the breadth of sensibilities here, it would have been easy for the results to sit together more like a compilation of exercises without cohesion. This is not that. This is an album, rich with movements, motifs, and a genuine emotional arc that lasts way beyond the initial excitement of seeing the list of artists involved. "Together we created something prismatic in collaboration," Sage offers--and finally now it's found refracting onto you.
PRESS
“Entirely wordless, the song titles communicate a great deal of the message, pastoral, romantic phrasings that reflect the gentle profundity of the compositions…Few things I've heard this year sound so enriching and good-natured.” - World of Echo
“What’s most magical about Wants a Diamond Pivot Bright is the album’s cohesion…it is not a meditative overture, but rather a work of contemplative interruption. It’s meant to be listened to and not just placed in the background.” - Cerberus
“Each track is inspired by and named for a line in one of [Stevens’s] poems, and reading the full poems while listening to the music brings a keen pleasure…The music opens up the poems like the poems open up the world.” - A Closer Listen
“The record floats by like a butterfly, the main core of its identity remaining consistent, dappled in sunshine, and that’s quite a shock when you consider that every track features a different artist, with M. Sage being the one mainstay, tying the pieces together…creativity is embraced to the point of maxing it out, collaboration is thought essential, and it shines like a brilliant diamond.” - Fluid Radio
“In each of the sixteen tracks on Wants a Diamond…, Sage sends out a little cry, a shout in the middle of the night, a tap on a universal window…in his music, Sage builds a refuge where we can, at last, meet again: a place built from a strange and beautiful balance of multiple sonic voices, a place that we should celebrate.” - Pargueland